What might be some of those changes? It could include your divorce, your marriage or even the marriage or divorce of your children. It can also be that your financial situation has changed, and you need to make changes.

The process of review may seem challenging but here are some steps to consider:

Step One: gather up all your documents, which may take some time. This includes your will, powers of attorney, health care proxies, living wills, any trusts and any other documents.

For clarity, here are some definitions. A will is the document that states where you want your assets to go when you die. It is reviewed by the court in a proceeding called probate, but only after your death. Assets in a living trust (or other types of trusts, depending on your situation) do not go through this process. Creating a trust results in a legal entity that owns the assets it contains. The trust assets go to beneficiaries upon death, as directed by you to the trustee. In many instances, trusts save time, money and avoid litigation over inheritances.

Powers of attorney name the person you appoint to make any legal, business or financial decisions for you, should you become incapacitated. A health-care proxy names the person to make your medical decisions, if you are unable to do so. Living wills are used to express your wishes for end-of-life care.

Step Two: review your documents. Make sure that everything is signed. You would be surprised how many important documents aren’t signed. Read the documents to see who was named as the executor of your will and who is the trustee of your trusts. Are those people still able to undertake these responsibilities? Do you still want them making decisions for you?

Step Three: make a list of all of your assets. Note how they are titled—what names are on the accounts—and what are the values of each. Include retirement accounts like IRAs, 401(k)s, insurance policies and annuities and check to see if you named a beneficiary. Do you still want that person to be the recipient of the asset? Make sure that you have also named a contingency beneficiary.

Step Four: what information would your loved ones need should you become unable to communicate? They’ll need information about your medications, the name and contact information for your primary care physician, your estate planning attorney, your CPA and your financial advisor. You may want to arrange for a “family meeting” with your healthcare team and your legal and financial team (two separate meetings), so everyone in your family is familiar with your professional teams. A list of where your documents can be found and who you want to receive personal items, may also be helpful.

Step Five: don’t forget to tell your trusted family members where your important information is located and what lists exist. You don’t have to review everything with them, but they should know where things are.

12/17/2018

MarketWatch recently discussed in "How to prepare for the death of your spouse," that when you know ahead of time that your ill or elderly spouse is going to pass away, there are some preparations that you can make.

Among the preparations that can make things easier are:

Gather up all important legal and financial documents. This includes Social Security information, marriage licenses, retirement account information and anything similar. If your spouse has an estate plan, then also locate it. The important thing is to make sure you know where everything is and can access it quickly when needed.

If possible and if you have not previously done so, talk to your spouse about his or her wishes and instructions for what should be done after death. Knowing what your spouse's burial wishes are, for example, means that you do not have to come up with a plan for them on your own.

If your spouse has an estate attorney, talk to the attorney. Let the attorney know the situation so he or she can prepare and assist you in making the appropriate legal preparations.

The average cost of just four years of long-term care for an elderly person is $140,000.

As the article points out, parents receive considerable government support to help offset the costs of raising children. The support comes in the form of tax credits and exemptions, in some cases. Lower income families receive support in other ways, such as food stamps and free school lunches.

While there is some support for taking care of the elderly because of Social Security and Medicare, there could be a lot more. Medicaid only pays for the long-term care of elderly people who do not have assets.

Families need to be aware of the high cost of caring for the elderly, so that they can plan accordingly.

According to the article Herb Lee, 87, became extremely ill after going out to dinner and was rushed to the hospital.

Lee had made it clear to his family that should he ever become seriously ill, he did not want any efforts made to prolong his life. He did not want respirators or feeding tubes. He did not want to be resuscitated.

The medical staff at the hospital could only give Lee half treatments that left him suffering in great pain.

The doctor who eventually had to make the decision about what to do was Lee's grandson-in-law. He later wrote about it and it was published in the newspaper.

Ultimately, the grandson-in-law decided to do what was necessary to save Lee's life, so he would not linger in great pain. Lee lived a normal life for several years after that and was able to enjoy many family events.

The grandson-in-law eventually asked Lee if in hindsight, he would want his life saved if he had to do it all over again and he said no.

After Lee's wife passed away, a man named Keya Morgan stepped in to assist Lee with his affairs. Morgan is on probation for an unrelated matter. It is claimed that Morgan moved Lee out of his home and will not let friends and family visit Lee.

Police and a social worker were sent to Morgan's home to conduct a welfare check on Lee. However, Morgan called 911 on them and reported that he was being burglarized. Morgan now faces criminal charges for filing a false police report. A restraining order against Morgan has also been issued by a court prohibiting him from contacting Lee.

While it is not yet known whether Lee is a victim of elder abuse, a common sign is when a caretaker isolates an elderly person from other friends and family.

07/11/2018

A group of doctors and religious-affiliated people fought hard against California’s recently-passed doctor-assisted suicide law. In May 2018, the opponents of the law won a major victory, when a district court judge declared that the law violated the state's constitution. The ruling, however, was a partial victory, because the judge did not rule on the merits of the law but declared that the manner of the law had been passed unconstitutionally.

The California law is being closely monitored by interest groups on both sides of the debate over doctor-assisted suicide. Interest groups are also following the law, because it included several provisions mandating that the state collect data about how the law was working and to issue regular reports about it.

07/04/2018

The concept of student loans in the U.S. is to take the loans out early in life, go to work after college and then pay off the debt load. However, it does not always work that way. It has become a big enough problem, that the American Association of Retired Persons is starting to worry about it, according to Politico in "Why the AARP is worried about student loans."

The AARP has two basic issues with the current student loan situation. The first is that an increasing number of elder Americans have defaulted on their loans. As a result, their Social Security benefits are being garnished. The organization is trying to get a law passed to end the garnishment of Social Security benefits.

More generally, the AARP is worried that the increasing amount of debt graduates are carrying is making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Americans generally do not save enough for their retirements. If the student loan situation gets worse in a few decades, elder Americans could be even more unprepared to retire.

The 92-year-old member of the Barstad family had a request for his funeral. He wanted to receive a full Viking funeral after he passed away, which he recently did.

His family decided to fulfill the request, so they modified a boat and took it to a local lake. A family member loaded the boat with fireworks and doused it with gasoline. The man's body was placed on the boat. Finally, the boat was set on fire and adrift.

The story does not end there.

The boat exploded.

Debris, including body parts, flew all over the place. Some of it even hit fishermen who were on the lake at the time.

Needless to say that this Viking funeral was not a good idea.

It is part of a trend that has seen people requesting all sorts of non-traditional burial methods. While some of the ideas are perfectly fine, others are not.

Bad ideas include spreading ashes indoors and now Viking funerals.

If you would like to have a non-traditional funeral, you can do so.

Before requesting something specific, however, it is a good idea to make sure your request can be legally carried out.

A number of laws at both the federal and state levels are being passed to address elderly abuse. However, the laws are flawed because they address the abuse rather than prevent it.

People who make plans before they become elderly, are at a significant advantage.

One of the things they can do with the help of an attorney, is to draft documents that determine in advance how mentally incapacity would be defined for them. That way if they start having problems, they will have documents in place to let someone else take over.

This can be better than relying on an elderly person, who is starting to see some signs of mental impairment, to recognize the problems and let someone else take over before a bad actor comes along and commits elder financial abuse.

Working with an attorney beforehand lets you also do several other things, such as creating trusts, advanced medical directives and powers of attorney.

The doctors argued that the law did not adequately define terminal illness, for it to be clear which patients were eligible for physician assistance. The law also exempted people who helped patients with death from liability. The doctors complained that the law was not passed by the legislature following the appropriate procedure. The judge agreed with these claims.

Supporters of the law point out that the ruling was not about the legality of physician-assisted death itself. As a result, California has subsequently filed an appeal of the court's ruling.

The law, which was passed in 2015 allowing the practice, has been observed carefully by advocates and detractors, who thought it was a good opportunity to see how it would work, especially since the law contained important provisions concerning record keeping and reporting.